Monday, February 21, 2011

My journey to making history through prayer - Part 1

Walter Wink once said that "history belongs to the intercessors." I believe that wholeheartedly. All of us have the power at our disposal to change the world on a daily basis! I am a strong believer in the power of God, and the fact that miracles are for TODAY.

Author Mark Batterson says this about prayer: "Your prayers outliveyou. There have been moments in my life when the Holy Spirit has whispered to my spirit: I'm answering the prayers of your grandparents in your life right now. Those are powerful moments. Intercessors typically don't make headlines, but if you read between the lines, they are the ones writing His-story!"

It's no secret to most people who know me that I'm very passionate about prayer. People ask me questions from time to time about what really led me to grow deeper in this area. I will be writing about this subject this week in a five part series here on the blog.

To begin this blog series journey, I need to tell you that many years ago when we were just starting out in pastoring I was walking around the property of the church by myself, praying. God spoke very clearly to me in my spirit and said, "you are a gatekeeper." Well, it made such an impression on me, I wrote it in my journal that day, "I am a gatekeeper!" and still have it to look back on. I wrote it down and said, "okay Lord," but I really didn't know what it meant. I just made it a matter of prayer.

I was used to taking things "literally" and trying to follow God as best I knew how. I wanted to obey Him and BE a gatekeeper. The only thing I could figure out when thinking about the word gatekeeper was that a gate was an entry - something to go through, and perhaps this meant God wanted me to stand at the entrance of the church and greet people as they came in and out. So I did.

I changed my habits and started standing by the door, welcoming people in, and then after playing the keyboard during the altar services, I would run back and stand with my husband at the close of services. I would greet people and hug them and spend time with them as they were exiting the doors after service. I wasn't sure why God had told me to do this but it was all I knew to do to follow Him in this direction at the time.

This went on for quite a while, and I was content in what I felt was one of my roles as the "gatekeeper" of the church. Then one day I was in study in my Bible and in some commentaries and discovered that gatekeeper meant something else...and I was totally freaked out.